DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Prosecutors say it was a complicated murder-for-hire plot and today the trial for a man accused of killing a Dallas dentist got underway.
Kristopher Love is charged with Capital Murder, accused in the death of Kendra Hatcher — a pediatric dentist who was shot and killed in an Uptown parking garage in 2015.
Prosecutors began presenting their case Monday morning and the first person to take the stand was Hatcher’s still grieving mother. A box of tissue was nearby and through her tears she told jurors about her daughter.
Prosecutors say Hatcher’s death was the result of a love triangle gone wrong. The class salutatorian, who went on mission trips and loved kids, had met a man that she wanted to take home to meet her family… but that would never happen.
Lawyers told jurors that Love was the gunman in a three-person conspiracy to kill Hatcher. The plot came to light after officers arrested Crystal Cortes, who investigators say admitted to driving the parking garage getaway vehicle. Cortes later told detectives her friend Brenda Delgado, who was the ex-girlfriend of Hatcher’s boyfriend, planned the murder.
(credit: Dallas County Jail)
Prosecutor Kevin Brooks said in court Monday that he would prove his case against Kristopher Love with witness testimony, forensic evidence, and the defendant’s own words.
A criminal background search found a lengthy history for Love in Tennessee — including charges of burglary and aggravated robbery. If convicted of Hatcher’s death, he could face the death penalty.